Martin Paine resigns from IRPM after leaseholder complaint

Following a complaint to the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM) Martin Paine has chosen to resign his position as a member rather than face investigation.

On several occasions in the last 18 months this site has reported on the exploits of Martin Paine, his FCA regulated wife, Ann Kirmond (Ref no MAK01110), and their various companies including FCA regulated Circle Residential Management Ltd (Ref no 311747).

Since our original report in January 2016 Mr and Mrs Paine and their businesses have gone on to appear in the national press. Sir Peter Bottomley MP named Martin Paine in a speech made to Parliament on 20th December 2016 as follows: “one crook is Martin Paine” (Hansard column 1334 20th December 2016).

The Paine’s introduced a scheme to provide very onerous ground rent terms on lease extensions at sites where they owned the freehold. The change in terms was set out in such a way that the problem was not spotted by numerous conveyancing solicitors.

Most, if not all, of the leaseholders affected by the problem were not aware that it was the Paine’s who were the landlords as well as being their managing agents. Having introduced these onerous lease terms Mr Paine has sometimes gone on to act as the supposedly sympathetic property manager. He would go so far as to appear to help his leaseholders by suggesting how they might sue their conveyancing solicitor as the cause of their problem.

The Paine’s web site for Circle Residential Management Ltd now states “we understand the need for a more ethical approach to charges, in line with our company philosophy”.

The firm also claims to be in dialogue with leaseholders to help address the problem. Despite this new found “ethical” approach we still receive complaints that Mr and Mrs Paine demand huge sums of money to remove a problem which they themselves initiated. One leaseholder has now made a complaint to the IRPM which alleges that Mr Paine had required a payment of £50,000 to amend his lease to less onerous terms. He asserts that the landlord proposes to record all but £1 of these charges as an “administration fee”. If this is true it would of course mean that only £1 would be recorded at the land registry.

The leaseholder asserted that Mr Paine’s activities amount to a serious breach of the IRPM code of practice. The complainant points to the fact that the member’s code uses phrases such as “professional, honest and fair”, “clear”, “transparent” and “promptly, openly and fairly”. The leaseholder asserted that Mr Paine had failed to comply with this model of behavior.

Normally investigations by any regulatory body take some time and often produce limited results, but not in this case. Having been contacted by Andrew Bulmer, Chief Executive of IRPM, Mr Paine’s reaction was to immediately resign rather than face investigation.

Andrew Bulmer IRPM CEO

Mr Bulmer wrote to the complainant:

“I wrote to Mr Paine setting out the terms of the complaint against him. He replied in a letter received at our offices 2nd June, to the effect that his dealings with your lease were not with you but the previous leaseholder and he rejected the complaint. Nonetheless, he has resigned with immediate effect his membership from IRPM and I have accepted that resignation. He will no longer be able to use the MIRPM post-nominals after his name. I have no jurisdiction to take the matter further on behalf of IRPM and hope that the outcome is to your satisfaction. “

LKP would disagree with two comments in Mr Bulmer’s excellent letter.

It has to be wrong that professional bodies have no power, beyond excluding their members, when there is no obligation to be members of such a body in order to practice in the sector. This is not a critisism of IRPM but a comment on the fact that the government have decided it should be a self-regulating sector. This case makes it entirely clear that it is effectively unregulated as Mr Paine will continue with his business faced by no regulatory oversight.

Elsewhere in his letter Mr Bulmer advises the complainant that he would “direct you to the excellent Leasehold Advisory Service” (LEASE).

The problem is that LEASE does not have any information warning people about the dangers of doubling ground rent, or accepting onerous lease extension terms such as those introduced by Mr and Mrs Paine. Nor has it done anything to help the leaseholders affected by this problem. Such work has been left to LKP.

It’s interesting to note that Mr Paine and a number of other freeholders are also very keen to direct leaseholders to LEASE for help. Government officials should perhaps wonder whether something is very wrong when people like the Paine’s are confident enough that it will do themselves no harm to point their leaseholders in the direction of LEASE. Circle Residential Management confidently states on their web site:

“LEASE, The Leasehold Advisory Service, is funded by Government to provide free legal advice to leaseholders, landlords, professional advisers, managers and others on the law affecting residential leasehold and commonhold. A useful site for all your leasehold queries.”

Perhaps it is not a surprise that landlords like the Paine’s are supporters of LEASE given that many have been regular users of the LEASE service over the years. Many have also attended the annual LEASE conference and trade show at great expense. This conference makes a large profit for LEASE and helps many landlord’s, managing agents, surveyors and lawyers – both good and bad – but does little to help leaseholders.

How much longer are government officials going to continue to persuade themselves that offering “impartial advice on the law” causes any problem to people like the Paine’s? LEASE’s efforts seem to have ended up helping people like the Paines rather than the leaseholders they are meant to serve.

The wider issue of onerous ground rents was first raised by LKP in a meeting in parliament 8 years ago. The cost to the country of doing nothing about this problem has been enormous. Lenders now estimate that 100,000 homes may now be blighted by onerous ground rents, making them difficult to sell or only saleable at a discount. Taylor Wimpey is the first developer to set aside £130 million to resolve the problems created by its own doubling ground rent leases. Other developers may well face the same problem.

LKP specifically raised the issue of selling leasehold houses with Minister Lewis in 2015. We understand that officials advised the Minister that they did not see it as a problem. They do now – but only becasue we managed to get the matter into the national press.

Instead of patting themselves on the back for the work that LEASE supposedly do officials should perhaps worry that problems like exit fees, collusive tendering and onerous ground rents are left to LKP. It is also left to us to sort out the mess and help the leaseholders. If officials check their records they will see that almost every major problem raised in the sector over the last decade comes out of the work that we do.

Contact LKP

The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

Comments

Excellent! What on earth did he have to hide? I hope that now leaseholders will write to the RICS and report their crooked ( assocRICS) Managing Agents who cloak themselves in this WORTHLESS moniker to no doubt attempt to give themselves an air of respectability. I am aware of one agent whose advertising ‘ boasts’ that they were a ” Governor of the IRPM ” for 2 yrs… How did that happen??? Let’s hope the wheels are falling off the wagon for the unscrupulous spivs out there!! Yeeehah!

Unlike the Chartered Institute of Building the RICS have little to say on the Ground Rent scandal. I spent about a month asking them for their policy, sending several reminders before I received a reply. Their reply stated that they are still looking into the issue, but would advise anyone purchasing leasehold to seek professional advice. They obviously want to keep their heads down.

Indeed, I’ve noted that before. (it would be surprising if, in a country that supposedly aspires to “fair play”, they were ALL bad.)

Nevertheless, the Conservatives appear to be institutionally corrupt.. It’s Peter Bottomley in one side of the scales and an awful lot in the other.

Including, the fact that 72 Conservative MPs voted in parliament against making it a requirement of landlords that homes they rent be “fit for human habitation”.

And a lot else that has been mentioned so often here that it hardly needs rehearsing, but which they have simply chosen not to hear or to dismiss with talk of red tape. They OUGHT to be afraid of public anger boiling over but are they? Not yet, apparently.

If only they had some shame, or even common decency. Sometimes it takes a disaster to stir the humanity of Conservatives and one has to decipher if it’s the real thing or going through the motions (I doubt I was the only one a little skeptical about Mrs May rushing out to the mosque yesterday).

Well, being the person I am I don’t see it as much of a result against this despicable thing called Paine. A “result” will be when all the people he has ruined, both financially and mentally, receive fair and correct compensation.. According to the info in the above article Paine is still demanding totally unacceptable monies in settlements. As a caring ordinary person, and avid supporter of LKP, because references on Paine’s company website Circle Residential Management, referred to membership of FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), PRS (Property Redress Scheme) and of course IRPM, I wrote to all of them in January 2016 asking they look into the unacceptable practices of their member, I received no reply. As expected, because its “Clubs For The Boys” yes. Clearly none of them took any action, and even today Paine has resigned, not been struck off. It would be interesting to know what CEO Andrew Bulmer would have done if the resignation was not offered!

As a matter of interest I have been asking Andrew Bulmer what the IRPM views are on the Leasehold Scandal. I have asked many times over a long period and cannot get a peep out of him. I can now see a possible reason why.

Paul, I guess Paine is a conservative but in all parties there are good and bad. Hell, is he (Paine) bad. Has any body seen what the Paine’s have ended up with living in the Cotswolds from “other decent peoples money” Not sure if I am allowed to post the link but look athttp://www.selfbuildanddesign.com/issues/july_2016/ God, she (Ann) loves to brag eh

I see nothing very wrong with this. One needs to separate the source of funds from what is done with them, and besides which, it is, one hopes, still a free country. I’m sure the Paines have some legitimate income. Better to play the ball (corruption) than the man, never mind his wife’s taste in design.

Yes it is a free country and I loathe vulgarians , ostentatious display and folks with total lack of style and ‘class’. I am allowed to state my opinion. Anyway don’t be sexist, how do you know it’s his wife’s ‘ design’….. And it’s true Money don’t buy ya class – it doesn’t matter if one is a Parvenu or an Aristo. You either got it or you ain’t – and I got it!!!! I am Sure we can all agree with Peter Bottomley when he referred to Paine as a “Crook” ?

In essence all that has happened is that Martin Paine has increased his earnings by saving on his subscriptions. Not being a member of any trade body is no sanction, and he will simply carry on regardless(even in the Beautiful South). Firstport(formerly Peverel) Retirement are still operating despite still not being admitted into ARMA over 3 years since they applied for accreditation. Here is the thing about self regulating commercial trade bodies. They don’t work, and they cannot work! Suppose it is compulsory to be registered with a trade body to work in the property sector? This would mean if you were expelled you could no longer operate. If you were a big player, the trade body could not afford to expel you, as they depend on your fees for their income. Imagine the consequences of someone being expelled and thus unable to operate engaging the likes of a Justin Bates who will find that because a committee member of the trade body was wearing the wrong shade of blue cardigan during the hearing the expulsion was unlawful the trade body would be open to a ruinous compensation claim?

Yes, MH and ME. In Jan 2016 I gave full info to IRPM re Paine’s antics. All the links they needed to look at and the ref to LKP and support from by Sir Peter Bottomley, Sir Ed Davey and numerous other prominent figures. Info was handed to the IRPM “on a plate” about the antics of their member Paine. It was not an anonymous letter either. I gave my name, full address and phone number. Not even an acknowledgement, including a back up e mail so I know IRPM received it. It seems now after a further 18 months, due to more and more pressure, IRPM have been forced to do something. But what has it achieved for all the decent people Paine has scammed?

Trevor are you going to contact the IRPM and request an explanation as to why your information re Paines antics were ignored. Does Paine have any ‘mates’ at the IRPM I wonder ? I know very little about this outfit. Are they reputable? I mentioned in a previous post that a paticular Managing Agent boasts that He/ She was a Governor of the IRPM. HOW? WHY? UNBELIEVABLE!!! It certainly seems that the IRPM is a boys and girls club. Drain the swamp!

Hi Kim, if you have any time to waste just google IRPM. This is off their website. Says it all really when you see what “Clubs for the boys” hover in the background. If you read IRPM code of practice rules I think Paine will have broken everyone of them!.

About IRPM – Your passport to professionalism in property management

The IRPM was launched in 2002 as a means of delivering a portable professional qualification in residential property management, available to anyone working in the sector and accepted by all those operating within it. The Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA,) Association of Retirement Housing Managers (ARHM) and the Property Managers Association Scotland (PMAS) were founding sponsors.

The Institute’s key objectives are to: •Raise standards in the residential property management sector •Provide individuals with independent accreditation of their professional skills •Provide a career development path for individuals •Aid in the process of recruiting new entrants to the sector •Assist practitioners in assessing job applicant capabilities •Provide opportunities for Continuing Professional Development •Improve the standing of the sector in the eyes of the public

The Institute has a defined Constitution and Rules, underpinned by a “Code of Professional Conduct”

Apropos of nothing, I am heartened to hear the news today that four Barclays bank directors have be charged with fraud 9yrs after the alleged crime was committed. Just think, the same might to happen to all those unscrupulous ‘Managing Agents’ ‘Freehold portfolio maestros ‘ out there who I am sure are committing fraud on a daily basis.and have been getting away with it. Surely their collars will be felt in the future??

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